What does the word ‘affiliation’ mean? The word ‘affiliation’ means to have an official connection to something.

International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness, IFBB, the governing body of the sport of bodybuilding and fitness, was founded by brothers Joe and Ben Weider in 1946 in Montreal, Canada and its current President is Dr Rafael Santonja. IFBB headquarters are located in Madrid, Spain. IFBB is a member of SportAccord, International World Games Association, UNESCO, ICSSPE, amongst many other prestigious international bodies, being recognized as the sole International Sport Federation for the sport of Bodybuilding and Fitness in full compliance with the WADA Code.

To be affiliated to the IFBB South Africa, means that you have an official connection to the above.

IFBB South Africa creates a platform for all athletes, catering from Novice to PRO status. We have adopted the IFBB International rules and regulations, criteria, judging code, code of conduct, code of ethics and the WADA anti-doping code. We present a minimum of about 36 events a year for athletes to gather knowledge and compete of which 8 are National Shows.

We are also affiliated to SASCOC (South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee), which means that we are the only body in South Africa that can issue National Protea Colours. Currently we also have 11 PRO athletes and 10 internationally qualified judges.

If you as an athlete affiliate to the IFBB, it means that you have access to all that the IFBB has to offer. You have access to enter our shows, to be judged by international judges against international athletes and also that you have access to the World stage, which means you can also get your PRO card and National Protea Colours. Getting your PRO card is the ultimate for every athlete – to be able to compete against the best bodybuilding and fitness athletes in the World.

In order for the IFBB to take you as an athlete on this incredible journey, you need to be a loyal IFBB affiliated athlete. By ‘loyal’ we mean you can only hold affiliation to one body. You as an athlete can decide what you want to do and where do you want your journey to take you. The IFBB has got strict rules and regulations in place with regard to loyalty (which was received from IFBB International). If you play rugby, you cannot play for the Bulls and the Sharks at the same time – this is the same principle.

There are so many new opportunities for affiliated athletes by bringing the International stage to South Africa, this being the reason why stricter measures are going to be put in place with regard to affiliation – to comply to IFBB International standards.

Soon the IFBB is also going to have a clothing range from which you can order online from our website – watch this space!